Episode 7 Nico's Sports Insights Podcast

The transcript covers various topics, including the NBA playoffs, soccer, and the MLS. The host introduces new factors for the podcast's second season, such as giving takeaways and points for each topic discussed. The host highlights the Celtics' loss in the playoffs, praises the Miami Heat's performance, and mentions the Lakers' blowout defeat. In soccer, the host discusses the Champions League final and upcoming tournaments. The host also talks about ownership changes in Newcastle and the potential move of Messi to the MLS. The conversation ends with a discussion about the LA Galaxy's poor performance and drama within the team. We will, we will rock you! We will, we will rock you! We will, we will rock you! We will, we will rock you! Welcome to Niko's Sports Insights! Season 2, welcome to Season 2. Before we start our coverage of all that we've missed and all that's going on right now, I'm going to introduce a couple new factors that will be included in Season 2 of our podcast. First of all, for our first, for every topic that we talk about, I'm going to say, let's say, I'm going to say, give our T's on this. T stands for Technical Fouls, and Technical Fouls in our podcast now will stand for our takeaways, what could have gone better, and all those topics that we're going to be talking about. Then, a P stands for Points, which is what we liked about the game, what we felt was good about the game, and we will add up those points that we get. We give an amount of points, we get that, we take that away for each of the topics, and whichever one of them gets the most points at the end, at near the end of each episode, we will do an in-depth, complete overview of that topic. That's the way it will work. Okay, that sounds wonderful. A lot more sophisticated than Season 1. You're getting better at this. Okay, so our first topic, please, first of all, excuse that we've been gone for so long. I've been taking a couple, I've been taking a break longer than I expected it to be from Season 1. Please excuse if we've missed the whole NBA playoffs. I'm doing like a short lightning speed recap, starting from the first round, where the Brooklyn Nets were swept by the Philadelphia Sixers 4-0. The Boston Celtics defeated the Atlanta Hawks 4-2 in the first round. The Miami Heat actually defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in five games, I believe. The Clippers and the Suns faced off, I believe it went to a game six. The Suns won. The Nuggets beat the Timberwolves in five games. Um, let's see, what am I missing? The most important one. The Lakers, by the way, beat the Grizzlies in five games. The Warriors beat Sacramento in seven games. You know what you say is the most important? The Celtics. The Celtics, yes. The Celtics' sixth game victory against the Atlanta Hawks. It was quite a shock that the Celtics actually lost by very little, very, very little. I think, I believe, two points or one point in game. I believe it was game five. Against Miami? Against Atlanta, actually. Um, I believe I have it. Okay, next round, round two. The Philadelphia 76ers faced off against the Boston Celtics. The Celtics ended up winning in seven games. It was down to the wire, game seven. The Nuggets beat the Suns in six games. The Warriors and the Lakers actually faced off in the playoffs. Steph Curry versus LeBron James. LeBron James won in six games. The Heat managed to beat the Knicks. Oh, by the way, in the first round, the Knicks did beat the Cavaliers in six games. The Knicks ended up losing in six games to the Miami Heat. Then in the conference finals, the Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics in seven games. I was quite disappointed about the Celtics' loss. The Lakers were swept by the Denver Nuggets 4-0. It was a blowout the Lakers never stood a chance. And then, in the finals, game two was yesterday. The Cugies tied 1-1 last night. The Heat won by four points. I was very close. So, what are your takeaways about this? What are your points? What do you think is a good thing about this playoffs? What do you think are the good things about this playoffs and what is good? Well, I was a little sad that the Celtics lost because in that last... Say that for the takeaways. For the takeaways? Just say the good things about it now. The good things? The good things. What we thought was really great. What we thought was good about the playoffs. That the Lakers lost in a blowout. So, that's one point. I'm actually going to give a couple of them. The Miami Heat upset. They upset the Bucs. They upset the Knicks. They upset the Celtics. And now, they might even upset the Nuggets. So, just a shout out to Miami for your incredible run this season. I'm also going to say... If you still remember from season one, I said the Warriors and the Lakers could not make the playoffs. I was proven wrong. You were proven wrong. They went full blown in the last stretch of the season. LeBron James went all out. Anthony Davis, all out. Steph Curry, all out. Klay Thompson, all out. But, yeah. I was just going to say that... Shout out to the Lakers and the Warriors for coming back at the very end. And shout out to LeBron James. I find that you, for only the third or second time in the playoffs, in a big moment, you managed to beat Steph Curry. After losing four or three finals to them. So, shout out to LeBron James for doing well. And now, what are our takeaways about these playoffs? Definitely the Celtics' loss. That was one of the biggest takeaways. I'm also going to say how... This might just be a coincidence, but... You consider this one of the greatest signature moves ever. Joel Embiid losing in the second round. You do not consider that his signature move. Every single season he's gone to the playoffs, he's lost in the second round. Is that right? Every single season that he's made the playoffs. How many times is that? Five. Five. You think he's choking? He isn't. The Sixers are absolute chokers. They choke in the playoffs. They're bottom clubs. What does that mean? That means that when it's all clutch and they're very close to the big goal, they lose it. Basically another word for chokers. Joel Embiid was the MVP. And he couldn't even make it past the second round. Which is very disappointing for an MVP that was averaging 34, 33 points a game. Also, I'm going to give a really big shout out to Jason Payton as well. This will add to the points. Because he was basically averaging a double-double for the entire NBA playoffs. So shout out to him. Also, just how badly the Cavaliers did. I really thought they would make it to the second round. Maybe even the conference finals. I really had good expectations for them. I had good expectations for them. But they did no good. So, I don't know. I don't know what to say. It was really, really disappointing to see that. That's going to be a one point. The next one. What are you thinking about, why have the Cowboys done absolutely nothing in this offseason yet? They've done nothing. They're Cowboys. They've done nothing. They haven't fixed their kicker problem. They're still in big depth. Like over 5 million maybe. In depth. Because they don't have enough salary cap. Sure, they did trade. I believe it was Ezekiel Elliott. They're running back. I believe they traded him. Also, Jalen Ramsey going to the Dolphins. The star Rams cornerback. He's going to the Dolphins. Aaron Rodgers, after so long of anticipating, is he going? He's officially signed with the New York Jets. This might be a little old because this was announced two months ago. But since I wasn't here to announce it, I'm just announcing it now. Alan Lazard has also gone to New York to be one of Aaron Rodgers' new wide receivers. What? That's going to be great next season then. Yeah. Sorry, Zach Wilson. You're not good enough. Besides that, the NFL has been very quiet this offseason. Really quiet, yes. Except the Ezekiel Elliott and the Jalen Ramsey trades. Have you heard anything about the sale of the... Washington Commanders? Yeah, the Commanders. Do you have any opinions on that? I think it is very well to what I've heard the past four or five months. It was because of something that happened in the training facilities. It was something maybe about a crime that I heard about. Is that right? In an interview, something happened with the NFL commissioner. This was four or five months ago. I don't remember that well. I remember that something of an affair happened with the owner, and now he's selling the team because of it. Yes. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, wanted to buy him, and he did not want him to buy the team. He made it impossible for him to even bid on the team. What did he do? What did he make the bidding price? I think he was trying $6 billion. I would expect Jeff Bezos to have that much money. No, no, no. He had it. He wanted to buy it. He didn't have $6 billion. He did have $6 billion, but the owner did not want to sell to him because he is blaming the Washington Post for all the publicity that forced him to sell the team. And because Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, he said, well, you're not getting my team. Even if he wanted to bid, he said he can't be part of a group trying to buy the team. Well, that isn't really the Washington Post's fault. It's honestly, it's really just like, they're honestly just doing it, like, it isn't their fault. They're supposed to report the news. Why would you keep the newspaper of your city from posting the news? Why would you make that a reason to stop someone from buying your team? Why is that a reason? Why would that be a reason? I'm going to say my takeaway for that is that that's just the worst reason I've ever heard. That's a really bad excuse to stop someone from buying your team. I believe that there might be some other deeper excuse that he might not want to reveal, that Washington Post's excuse might be a cover-up for some more deeper excuse that he has, but he doesn't want to reveal it. I think that might be one. What do we think about the NFL trades, by the way, what's going on? I think it's been quite bad lately. I don't know. Maybe the trades have been good, but we haven't seen many of them. So I'm going to give that a zero, flat zero. And that Washington, I think it provides really good entertainment for the people who are listening about it, but it's for listening to all the news that's happening about it. But I don't think that is a worthy excuse. It's just bad. Okay. So I'm just going to give that a zero as well. Okay. Moving on to soccer. Let's move on to soccer. What happened yesterday? LAFC was beaten by Leon in the CONCACAF Champions League final, like two, which means Leon. Were you reporting on that game from the stadium? Yes, I was at the game. Painful defeat. But was it an exciting? It was quite an exciting game, actually. But, yeah, I was there at the game. The reward for winning the CONCACAF Champions League now is two trips in a row, so the 2024 and the 2025 Club World Cup. They go into that. When is that and where is it playing? The one, it's next year, I believe, in about – In the summer, right? In the middle of the season, actually, I believe. In the middle of the season. And it's in Tokyo, no? I think the 2024 is in Tokyo, maybe. I'm not sure. And 2025, they haven't decided yet. At least not to what I know. To what I know, I don't know. Okay. All right. Also, I'd like to apologize for something that happened in Season 1. Some of the facts I was giving were actually wrong, so please excuse that. What? Including the Clay Thompson that has the record for 13. The record is actually 14. Yeah, and who has the record? It's Clay Thompson, but he has the record. That's not a big mistake. I know, but – And who has the third highest points in NBA history isn't actually Will Chamberlain. I made a mistake. It was actually Karl Malone. Karl Malone? I'd actually made that mistake, so please excuse that. I might have made some other mistake, but I'd just like to apologize for those that I've been aware of. Those are what journalists call erratas. I guess. All right. So, what do you say? So, I think the NBA playoff – oh, wait. First of all, what have you been thinking about Nikola Jokic, the whole playoffs? What have you been thinking about that? You changed subjects again? Yeah. You went from soccer back to basketball? Actually, no. Wait. First of all, besides that, Champions League Final is in, I believe, five days. So, that's something to watch. Who are you going for? Since it's between – I believe it's between Inter Milan and Man City. I'm actually going for Inter Milan just because I'm a Man U fan. But, yeah. By the way, Manchester City won the FA Cup and they won the Pan Am League. Napoli, surprise, won the Serie A for the first time since Maradona. Is that right? So, by the way, the clip that I saw was that the whole city had fireworks because they were celebrating their victory because they hadn't won in four years and they'd won it. I believe the Bundesliga winner was Dortmund, actually, I believe. It was Peter Bayern or Dortmund. The PSG winner was – I mean, the League One winner was obviously PSG. They did obviously won. They did? Yeah. Also, surprise, the team of the season did not include Neymar. No? So, what are your thoughts on – do you think Neymar has hit his peak now and he's on downfall now? I am afraid that that's the case. First of all, what are our rankings on soccer? What are the good things? I think it's all the excitement of the season that's gone by now that we only have one game less in the European season. But my only takeaways about the European leagues and all that stuff is – actually, one addition that I'm going to say. Newcastle is going to the UCL, the Champions League. So, just shout out to Newcastle and their new owners. I do believe that their new owner has completely changed the game. Last season, they barely even made it out of relegation. Now, they're in the Champions League. After they changed the owners. What did they do to do that? They changed owners to a Saudi Arabian really rich billionaire owner. He bought the team. They signed a lot of really good players. Then they got upgraded training facilities, better training, better coaches. That fast? I mean, they got three players. They upgraded their training equipment. They kind of upgraded their training facilities in a way. Some of the minor coaches were also – they either trained better, they got better training, or they just got completely better new ones, which I think helped out a lot. Now, they ended up at fourth. That's amazing. So, I'm going to give that as an up. That's two. Another up is Napoli. Good job, Napoli. I'm quite surprised, given that they sold their best player, Insigne, to the MLS last season. That was the most shocking move I've ever seen, but apparently it helped them out. What do you think of the rumors running around saying that Messi may come to MLS? Actually, they aren't rumors anymore. It's official now, actually. It is official? It's official. I don't think so. It is official. Really? Where is he going? Miami? He's going to Inter-Miami in May. Really? Oh, wait. He's already in Inter-Miami, I just realized. He's in Inter-Miami now. He's here? I don't think so. I think the Saudis are trying to buy his contract for $400 million. It's already signed here. When was that? About two months ago. No. A month. We will... Okay, I'm not sure, but to what I hear, Messi is...it's official. Messi is coming to the MLS. You think? I mean, to what I know. So I'm going to give that as an upside. Yeah, that would be exciting for MLS. But for the European League, as an upside, because finally they can take a break of both Ronaldo and Messi. And that opens up the way for the new start that has been waiting for Messi and Ronaldo to just leave. Who? Examples, Mbappé, Haaland, other youngsters who need Rashford. Mbappé doesn't need to wait for anyone to leave. He's already the best player in the world. What are you talking about? It's true. But he hasn't been able to fully dominate the team because he's in... He actually said he was going to leave PSG because he was in the shadow of Messi because everyone wanted Messi. He's not in the shadow of Messi. No, now he actually said he wanted to leave PSG twice because he was in the shadow of Messi. Which is why he's been waiting for his moment so he can finally take over PSG. Even though he kind of already has. The problem with PSG is that it has no competition. There is a competition, actually. Neymar, Mbappé, Messi. What's the competition in the team, like with other teams? What are the teams that compete with them? Basically, none. Nobody. Except like Real Madrid and the big clubs. But that's not in their league, then. In their league, that's just because league one is horrible. Can you imagine having such a great team to be playing against? The closest they can get is Marseille. And the only good that they do is that... And the only thing that they're better at is that they won Champions League. Which is something that PSG has never done. Okay. Yeah. So what are your thoughts on that? I'm going to give that as another upside. Actually, I'm going to go to the takeaway. I'm going to make that a takeaway. Because of the competition. Because there shouldn't be competition between pro, all-star, amazing teammates. They should be working together. There should be no competition. So I'm going to make that a takeaway. I'm 100% with you on that. And besides that, I don't think there's any other takeaways. So I'm going to make that... Actually, I'm going to make the competition half a takeaway. So I'm going to make that 2.5. And now for the MLS. What are we going to rate that? I'm going to say... Or CONCACAF, let's just say. First of all, how did León beat LAFC if León is 9th in the Mexican League? I don't know how they're 9th in the Mexican League. But they are a very good team. They play a really good team. But... They understand each other. They play tough. Good defense. They're a really good defense. Their goalie is amazing. Yeah, their goalie is really good. I'm just going to give that as an upside. To me, it's a takeaway. Okay. We can't be biased in this podcast. We're not allowed to be biased. Okay. That's good journalism. I like that about you. We're not allowed to be biased in podcasts. Okay. But... Yeah. But if I'm a guest, I can be. You're the host. You have to be neutral. I'm a guest. I can be whatever I want. Yeah, I'm going to make that an upside. Just because of how good León is. But I'm also going to make a takeaway because of how bad they are in their league. So I'm going to make that a 0-0. Okay. They need to like each other. Besides that, also how good MLS is doing, how good St. Louis is. They're a really good upstart team. St. Louis, Missouri? Yep. They're good, yeah. They're doing very well. I'm going to make that another upside. Yeah, because that's a new team, right? This is their first season. They're already taking over the Western Conference. The Western or the Eastern? West. They're in the Western Conference. They are in the Western Conference. Okay. What's the team that's number one in the Eastern Conference? Cincinnati. Cincinnati. They are amazing. They have not lost. I think they've lost only one game. Yeah, same with LSU. But another thing that I'm very surprised about is how bad they were last season. They were, I think, third to last. And now they've had no player changes. They have only solo players. And they suddenly got better by doing that. And now they're amazing. Which is, I'm going to make that another upside. Just because that's great. I agree. Anytime a new team in the league is doing well. Or a team that's been here since the start, who has always been bad, becomes suddenly good. The Cincinnati's been, they were one of the original teams, actually. But I'm just going to say that that was very good. And what do you think of the drama that is happening at the LA Galaxy? Oh. It's drama after drama after drama. The fans are leaving the team. Yeah. I know people who have been 20-year fans, ticket holders of the LA Galaxy, thinking about leaving the LA Galaxy. Here, LA Galaxy will be inaugural teams. Yet they have never, ever had a bad season. And that I know by knowledge. They have never had a bad season of them all. They are the single worst team in the MLS right now, with only 9 points. Yeah. They are, and it's because, here, let me tell you this story. The LA Galaxy fans wanted them to just take the owner out. The president. The president. They wanted the president out. They didn't want him. The owner of the team told them, okay, the president's out. But they secretly brought the president back in, without anybody knowing. Nobody on the staff except the president and the owner knew about this. Is that right? I mean, that's to what I know. Nobody knew about it. No fans knew about it. And then when they realized it, they got so mad that they boycotted the team. And now every time that LA Galaxy plays home, it's honestly every game they play now is away. Because there's only the opponent fans in their home stadium. Because all the fans are leaving. All the fans are leaving. Get it? Fans that have been ticket holders since the inaugural season in 1996, 25-year ticket holders, or 27, are now selling their tickets, trashing their tickets, because of that. And now LA Galaxy is doing horrifically this season. I'm going to make that a takeaway. That's 100% a takeaway. Yes. Since I'm not allowed to be biased. Okay. But I'll give points to the power of the fans. When the fans are happy, and the fans go to the games, and the fans scream, and the fans celebrate like LAFC fans do, it helps the team at home tremendously. And it is the case on all the good teams that have good fan base, do much better than teams that have a fan base that is against them. Also, by the way, the MLS itself and many newspapers and sports journalists have said that LAFC has the single best fan base in the entire, in all of the U.S., if not the Americas, in my opinion. Yeah. And you saw it yesterday at the finals. I saw it. It was amazing. The first three minutes of the game. Complete intimidation. The energy. The fire. They literally were throwing, they were using flame throwers in the opening ceremony. Flame throwers. Where in the entire world do you see flame throwers? It was amazing. The smoke. You couldn't even see because of how much smoke. In fact, there was this sign that they pulled up with something from some Avatar movie, and it said, finish him! With the guy punching through. And they were just pointing it directly at the Leon fans in the top corner. And I even saw it on his man, their best player. I kind of got a glimpse of his face and he was like this. He was like really like nervous face. Like intimidated in a way. That wore off throughout the rest of the game, but I'm just going to make that an addition, which means that's three points minus the one. That's a two. We should do a tie. What do you think? Is there anything else we should cover in this for the MLS? I think that's it for now. For the MLS? Okay. Then I'm going to say, since we've been taking a lot of time, I'm going to go, instead of an in-depth, because we've already done quite a little bit of an in-depth NBA, I'm going to do a little bit, little bit better in-depth description, a little bit more in-depth coverage of the NBA since we got the most points today, which is three. First of all, honestly, I'm just going to say this has been an overall amazing season. Good job to all the players that didn't make the playoffs. Good job to all the players that made the playoffs. Every player did amazing this season. I think that's a good way to finish the podcast. I'm so glad you're back in the saddle. We're about to finish this wonderful, wonderful podcast. Until next time, we'll see you soon. Goodbye.